Wax Is Dead Bike Ceramic Coating

Wax Is Dead Bike Ceramic Coating is is dirt repellent, prevents fine scratches and swirls, and makes it easy to clean your machine thanks to the hydrophobic coating that makes it hard for mud to stick. It's very expensive, but the effects are claimed to last two years and the bottle does multiple bikes.

Ceramic coatings are all the rage in the automotive scene, with the main advantage being highly durable paint protection. This bicycle-specific version is not the first on the market, but the intriguing thing is it can be applied to virtually your entire bike, as opposed to just the frame – which is what you do with a regular wax.

> Buy now: Wax Is Dead Bike Ceramic Coating from Wax Is Dead for £45

This coating offers scratch resistance thanks to its 9H hardness, which means it can resist the scratching strength of a 9H pencil (if you ride through a lot of pencils). It's also hydrophobic and makes it hard for dirt to stick/easier to clean, is chemical, oxidisation and UV resistant and adds much to the general shininess.

The makers say it lasts up to two years, and one bottle covers up to two bikes. It can be applied to all exterior surfaces, including matt or gloss paint, metal, plastic and titanium. It also works on top of existing frame protection, and is even said to help prevent it yellowing. Obviously there wasn't time to test either this, or the two-year longevity, during our review...

In the box you get a 15ml bottle of ceramic coating, an applicator pad, and a couple of stickers – though curiously no instructions. Personally, I feel that if you're spending £45 on a coating that needs to be applied correctly, you want the manufacturer to tell you how to do it. Thankfully, the website has a video showing you exactly how.

The hardest part is getting your bike properly prepped – you must remove any dirt or grease or the coating won't adhere or last properly. Even if your bike looks clean, you still need to thoroughly clean it: first a proper shampoo and degrease, followed by isopropyl alcohol (or similar) around the entire bike to ensure no oily areas remain. This is a fiddly and time consuming procedure, and you definitely don't want to do in a dark corner of your shed.

Thankfully, actually applying the coating couldn't be easier. You just place a couple of drops onto the applicator pad, wipe it on section by section, then buff it with a microfibre cloth. Every time you put more onto the pad it gets more saturated, so as you go along you find you need to add less. Once done, you leave it 24 hours to cure.

The pad is quite small and flexible enough to get into most nooks without any issue, and there's a strap on the back that helps you keep hold of it. The last thing you want is to drop the pad on a dirty, gritty floor halfway through... and I'm definitely not talking from personal experience here. Cough.

Panoramic ceramic

Wax is Dead says you can apply this all over, including on saddles, though I personally stuck to the frame, seat post, stem, handlebar and groupset. I avoided parts like seats, levers and rims.

Although Wax Is Dead says the bottle is good for two bikes, mine only used up about a third. It's a very large frame too, though I avoided my rim-brake wheels so saved some there.

> road.cc Road Bike of the Year 2020/21

With a claimed two-year life it's going to be a while before I can meaningfully update the review, though by that time you'll have either a) decided this isn't for you, b) bought some anyway or c) discovered your bike is now the last shiny thing on our smouldering planet and being worshipped by as many cackling survivors as will fit on the donkey bus. It's anybody's guess, really.

I've not been able to fully test the dirt-repelling nature of the coating, simply because I've been 'unlucky' enough to avoid particularly bad weather since applying it, but water simply sheets off the paintwork, which will take a lot of particles with it.

Value

Expensive though it is at £45, it's £10 cheaper than a 15ml bottle of Gtechniq's similar Bike Ceramic, and £15 cheaper than 10ml of IGL Coating's 8H hardness Ecocoat Bike, which also lasts for up to two years.

There are plenty of non-ceramic protectants that cost less, though. Fenwick's Professional Protective Coating is £11.99 for 100ml and suits all types of frame finishes (and components), though it only lasts six months per application and can do nothing against scratching.

Overall

Though this is a fair investment, it's cheaper than its main rivals and is better value than you might think – if you've just spent thousands on a shiny new steed, £11-odd per year isn't bad at all for decent extra protection.

Verdict

Easy-to-apply coating that works well enough to offset that initial outlay